I withhold belief in ESP but strangely I thought of a woman just yesterday who died today, exactly one day after her 90th birthday.

Alleen Mae Beller was born in Kansas City on January 25, 1923. She became an entertainer/broadcaster and during televisions’ infancy she was a fixture on the Philadelphia airwaves. Legally changing her name to Sally Starr she had a profound influence on the young viewers in the late 1950’s thru the 1960’s.

I have had the opportunity to meet her on 2 occasions, once as an 11 year old when I sang on her television program and again about 25 years’ ago when she was the parade’s Grand Marshall for a town celebrating it’s 100th anniversary and I drove the convertible she rode.

The television studio was very small, probably about the size of a garage consisting of a large camera, Sally’s western backdrop and a plain wooden bench where we sat while waiting for our orders to step up and perform. When the camera was off for commercials she made it a point to sit with us (I was part of a quartet) and take a genuine interest in us all. She was truly very sweet and kind and left us with a fond memory.

The same was true during her parade ride in the very hot July sun. I mentioned our former meeting and she seemed to recall our group’s performance. She also was very cordial with the parade bystanders and seemed to really enjoy the interaction with her fans, now parents and grandparents who grew up with “Our Gal Sal”. My young son, riding shotgun in the convertible, was also impressed as she had a real love connection with children.

I have attached a brief history of her life and career from the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers hall of fame.

I grew up playing 2 sports, soccer and baseball. I loved them both and if I could I would have wished to become a professional baseball outfielder.I began playing on team sports at a very young age, and in all my years I have only been on two winning community championship teams and played in only one high school championship game. We lost that one.

Unlike today’s victors, only winning teams would receive trophies. The losers would just have to suck-it-up and try harder next season. I do not know how our poor fragile egos survived.

Growing up soccer parents never showed for games or had interest in the sport. It was too new and unknown to this country. Occasionally some foreign-speaking parent would shout obscenities to a referee from the sidelines but most parents were interested in “normal-sports”, baseball, football, basketball etc. With their busy work schedules, and 5 o’clock cocktail hours, they were way too tired to learn the rules of a new game. Even our high school soccer championship game had only one spectator, a girlfriend of one of the team members. The other girlfriends were too busy with their 5 o’clock whatever's.

If I were raising kids today I would feel the same way about Rugby.

Really, do we need another kids sport?

My son-in-law loves the game, is very knowledgeable and he both plays and coaches. Rugby is swiftly becoming the “new soccer”. To me it does look intriguing, interesting although a little strange but I can certainly understand his enthusiasm for the sport. It just may take too long for me to learn the rules so it will eventually interfere with my Internet browsing and cocktail hour.

If my child had a desire to join a Rugby team I would strongly encourage him/her to stay at home and play video games. We are being led to believe that our children need to leave the sofa and get some fresh air and exercise like we did in our day.Can we really trust all those child obesity statistics bombarding us daily in the media? The added bonus of sofa-sports is that video game playing hones skills that may one day lead to a career as a drone pilot. My child could get a nice cushiony government position hunting down and “neutralizing” our citizenship.In these times when we convinced all our children that they must have a college degree so they can incur mountains of debt, no prospects for a job in their field and can move back home for maybe forever, at least the skill sets they receive can have them set for life on the federal payroll. Another benefit is that if the kiddies are home all the time, they can’t be bullied, and could learn to defeat their adversaries with drone missiles.

I would be doing my part in helping to save the planet by not using all that fuel driving to and from travel games.

So in effect we all win.

Now when do we get our trophies?

JGT

Just in case you have one of those strange little creatures at home that desire team sport participation, and wish to become a Rugby player, here is a short video on the rules of the game.http://youtu.be/tiCiehJAFSgSee More